


Purpose

by Callysto



Category: Shelter 2 (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Depression, Grief, Mention of blood, One Shot, Suicidal Thoughts, Trauma, graphic depiction of wounds, just a lovely read xD
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 12:50:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,817
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16388048
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Callysto/pseuds/Callysto
Summary: The cold.Seeping through her bones. Numbing her to the all-encompassing pain she felt pounding everywhere.The Cold.Slowly spreading in her being, almost softly, almost gently. Like a tender caress in her matted hair. Almost over, so close she could taste it. The sweet relief she’d be yearning for with all her might, her last wish, her sole desire.The cold…





	Purpose

The cold. 

Seeping through her bones. Numbing her to the all-encompassing pain she felt pounding everywhere. 

The Cold. 

Slowly spreading in her being, almost softly, almost gently. Like a tender caress in her matted hair. Almost over, so close she could taste it. The sweet relief she’d be yearning for with all her might, her last wish, her sole desire.

The cold… 

Her crusted eyelids broke their seal, revealing amber irises, struck golden in the timid morning sun, swallowed by the bottomless black of her pupils.  
The world turned dark once more as her lids fell closed. 

She rasped a breath out of her crushed chest, damaged and broken ribs far outnumbering healthy ones, and forced her eyes open again, her gaze unfocused, bleary with unshed tears and untold exhaustion.

She was so tired… She dragged a ragged breath in her mostly likely collapsed lung.  
It wouldn’t be long now. 

Her swollen eyelids fell shut once more as she longed for the sweet relief of death, craving its welcoming embrace. Her eyes fluttered open once more as she heard soft steps on the snow. She blinked several times. Was this Him ? The dark figure looming over her ? was it Death at last ? Offering her the peace of mind she so desired, as it gently knelt next to her ? 

She pulled one more desperate breath into her caved chest, the stutter under her breast getting weaker and weaker.  
The acrid smell of blood and sweat assaulted her senses. 

Yes, this was probably what death would smell like.

Blood… Sweat... Basil...

 

***

 

_Why on earth would you pick it up ? It’s dying !”

_She, is healing.”

_It smells like death and rotten meat !”

_Her wounds are infected, it’s a miracle she hasn’t given up yet… She must be in so much pain…”

_Maybe if you’d left it alone it would not BE in so much pain !”

Her eyelids fluttered open with a gentle moan. An angel stood in her gaze. As young and withered as time itself, ageless and wise, wisps of hair as white as the heavens adorning her angular face, the skin of her cheeks wrinkled with a lifetime of laughter, her thin lips pulled in the gentlest smile :

_See ? Look, she’s awake, she made it…”

A bony hand gently carded through the fur on her head and neck, careful to avoid the gaping wound on her throat, still red and tender with infection, pus slowly leaking from the drain. A soft snarl escaped her in spite of her, her golden irises trained on her hazel ones facing her. The smile only grew even softer:

_And now it’s growling at you ! all you’ll end up doing is getting yourself mauled to death ! 

A tinge of mischief sparked in the chestnut pools:

_I hardly think our guest is in any state to even move, let alone maul anyone to death.”

_Yet…

Her eyes felt shut once more, as she felt a wave of exhaustion overtake her. Her world darkened behind her lids for a second as the gentle hand passed on her face, pushing her eyes closed even more, before returning to its previous spot behind her ear:

_She’s exhausted, the poor thing…”

_It’s a lynx Nana, not a child.”

_Oh so according to you Aida, I should just let “it” die ? Even when I can help ? 

The voice had remained completely levelled, without a hint of anger or reprimand. Simply a question, genuinely asked. But there was no answer from the human named Aida, aside from a vague mutter she couldn’t catch, and the sound of a door being slammed shut. Inna felt the slightest tinge of fear tingling in her stomach at the idea of being at the mercy of two bipeds, but for now at least, she had no choice, nor did she have any strength. Or any reasons to fight. 

Perhaps in their folly she could provoke the clemency of a swift kill… 

She groaned slightly as a wave of gut wrenching grief washed over her, digging in her bones and heart mercilessly:

_Sssshhhh little one, rest. We shall make you roam the forest in your prime once more, just you wait, just you rest…”

The human, Nana, had mistaken her moan, bourn of profound sorrow, for one of mere physical pain. But Inna could feel naught but the all-encompassing pain in her heart, drowning anything else in its wake as she surrendered herself to the sweet relief of unconsciousness…

 

***

 

The cold bit into the exposed skin of her neck and face, as she made her way to the small cabin at the back where they stored the wood for the winter. A hiss escaped her as the sting on her wind battered cheeks became more and more painful.

She needed to hurry, at this rate her nose would soon fall off.

An acerbic smirk pulled at her purple lips as the idea that a perfectly good lynx pelt was currently sleeping in her bed, all she needed to do was peel it off its owner’s flesh, and she would have a wonderful new scarf to wrap around her dreadfully exposed neck. Her smirk soon fell though, she hardly thought her grand-mother would be very pleased with the idea, even if the animal was still at the doors of its awaiting death, despite the older woman’s best effort. 

It had been three weeks since they had found the bloody heaping mess of a thing the mother lynx had been, her nipples still swollen with milk, leaking along with black blood and guts from her torn abdomen. 

Three weeks and yet she was nothing but skin and bones…

Nana had kept a relentless watch over her, diligently feeding her and dressing her wounds. She was all but healed, and should have been back in the wilderness long ago, but the mother lynx still laid on her bed, practically motionless, save for barely noticeable breaths, and the occasional slow blink as she kept her impossibly golden eyes trained on the two humans caring for her, bare of any emotion, save for bone deep exhaustion. 

But Aida had seen, in those impossibly golden eyes, flashes of a grief so profound, she’d felt it tear her own heart to shreds. She had looked in those impossibly golden orbs, that had stared back at her unflinchingly, uncaring, wild with sorrow. And she had felt it, at the pit of her gut, the pain, the anguish. She knew why, in spite of her complete physical remission, the mother lynx still laid in her bed, all but dead, save for the laboured breaths, and the occasional slow blink as she stared. 

A puff of white air vanished from her lungs into the gusts of wind dancing around her, her nose tingling painfully with the cold, its unforgiving hand assaulting every  
bare patches of skin it could find. 

Aida gently shook the snow off, clearing the morbid thoughts clouding her mind, now was not the time. She expertly grabbed the driest logs and swiftly made her way back inside the small cottage, shaking the snow from off her coat. It was small, “quaint” as one of Nana’s guests had put it once, when they were still renting it out, a hesitant smile plastered on her face as her husband gazed at the house adoringly. He’d offered to buy it a hundred times, and Nana had refused a hundred times, no matter how astronomical the price got, prices that even Aida wasn’t sure she’d have declined. But her grand mother had said every time, with the same unwavering patience and love, that she’d been born here, and here she will die. 

On the hundredth and one time, the man had finally nodded, thanked the old woman for the immense kindness and hospitality she had shown through the years, and had set out for the last time with his wife, never to be seen again. 

They had rented the house out in summer to many other couples and families, till Nana’s failing health had finally pushed Aida to close it down. That had been two years ago, she still to this day turned down some of their most stubborn clients “They’re loyal Aida” Nana had told her dozens of times, mirth dancing in her pale blue eyes as the young woman grumbled over the less and less polite replies.

The meagre pension, and Nana’s country renowned hand made jumpers had kept them standing, albeit not as comfortably as the renting once had. And now she’s spending it all on that stupid cat… The thought crossed her mind bitterly as she stepped into the small house. 

And there it was, laying on its side, lifeless, save for the rise and fall of its hollow chest. Aida could count all its ribs, even under the thick, patchy fur 

“You wouldn’t even keep me warm” she spat, venom lacing her every word. It didn’t even look at her, just staring out the window, listless, a sigh swelling its chest. “Stupid cat…” 

She dropped the firewood by the hearth, carelessly throwing a log in the embers, the force enough to stir up a dying flame. The fire roared alive, sending shadows dancing on the walls, the crackling almost deafening in the small room. Nana wa upstairs, knitting she assumed. At least not present to admonish her dislike of the fleabag. 

“Will you die already ? That’ll make everyone’s life easier.” The cat looked at her then, hatred burning in her golden eyes. Aida swore she could almost hear it growl “don’t you think I want to ?”

Aida glared back, practically snarling at the wild animal lying in her bed. The lynx looks away, agony and emptiness replacing the surge of emotion that had clouded her gaze. The young woman sighed, she was arguing with a cat. What would her mother say… Nothing good she imagined, and then quickly dismissed it.  
Her mother’s right to have an opinion vanished the moment she had packed her bags and left. 

Aida sat on one of the ageless armchairs, bills and receipts in hand, ready for another soul sucking evening of accounting. The lynx didn’t move again. 

 

***

 

The acrid smell of smoke awoke her, a cough sputtering up her throat before she was even fully conscious “What the-” A terrified yowl snapped her out of the dancing numbers and laughing euro signs she’d just been dreaming of. 

The cat, fire, Nana. NANA. 

She dove out of her chair, still coughing her lungs out, but Nana was already downstairs, trying to lift the stupid feline

“NANA GET OUT OF HERE” she screeched, frantically pushing the aging woman towards the door “The lynx !” She coughed out, eyes wide with fear. 

Rage exploded in Aida’s chest, of course she’d be more worried about the stupid cat, “Leave it if it has a lick of sense it’ll get out” Another horrendous yowl cut her off “She’s too weak Aida !” Her grand-mother nearly collapsed in a fir of cough. The young woman nearly screamed in frustration 

“Get out of here Nana I promise I’ll get your stupid cat out !”

She shoved her grand-mother out before diving back in the burning house. Flames licked at her clothes, scorched her skin, burned her lungs. She could scarcely see, but she could hear. Amidst the roaring of the fire she could hear the pitiful mews and sputtered coughs. She felt her way around more than anything, her resentment growing every time a burning shard bit into her extended hand, until she felt fur.

She gasped, forgetting her situation for a brief second. So cold, so thin, so soft… A tremendous crack snapped her out of her reverie, the wood around her whistling and moaning under the weight of the compromised structure. She grabbed the feline roughly, it barely weighed a thing… She was almost afraid the bones were going to tumble out of order. 

But the cat was surprisingly strong, in its terror it reared back, its earsplittingly loud yowls ripping through her very core. She felt more than she saw a paw swipe millimetres away from her face

“Listen you stupid cat I’m trying to get you out, so be fucking useful for once in your goddamn life and stop fighting !” 

It didn’t occur to Aida to be shocked that the lynx deflated in her arms, as if it had understood. She gathered the heap of fur and bones in her arms and rushed out, hiding her face in the lynx’s shoulder. It smelled strange… Like musk, pines and spring rain. 

As she stumbled out of the house, she could already hear the sirens screaming. But she could also see her nana collapsed on the floor, her body convulsing with coughs.

“NANA” 

she dropped her burden unceremoniously, all thoughts of soft fur and sweet smells forgotten. The fire fighters reached her mere seconds after she’s dropped to her knees next to the most precious person in her life. She barely registered a man pulling her back, it was all going too fast, one second she was crunching numbers on her tired old calculator, the next she was in the hospital being treated for burns, and no one would tell her anything about her nana…

 

***

 

The little human came back some time after, Inna hadn’t moved from the bush she’d dove into as soon as Aida had dropped her. But here she was again, alone. Where was nana ? The lynx pondered idly, still shaken up. She couldn’t wrap her mind around what had just happened. One minute she was dozing off listening to the little one mumbling about things she couldn’t make sense of, and the next she was coughing her lungs out and shoved out of the house. 

But she couldn’t forget, how gentle the hands had been, the reverence…

The little one had never touched her, not that Inna would have cared, she didn’t care about much these days. She cared about nana. Where was nana ? She stepped out of the bush, slowly, she didn’t want to frighten the little one, she could be jumpy at times. 

But she didn’t react, she was just staring at the burnt-out front door, unmoving. 

The lynx cocked her head. She’d never seen the young one motionless, she was always out hunting, gathering, getting wood, playing with the little square and growling at it, but she’d never still, even when she slept. 

Inna had guarded her sleep many times, observing this strange being. She was so different from the older one. Nana was kind, Nana was gentle, in a way nothing had ever been, she owed her her life, however worthless it was. Often she’d asked herself in the dead of night why the old woman bothered. The little one was right, she’d be better off dead, at least then her fur would keep someone warm. 

She ventured into the open, slowly padding over to the little one, she still hadn’t moved. 

Until she did. 

She turned around so quickly Inna barely noticed it, and snarled 

“You.” 

That simple word conveyed so much hatred Inna stepped back almost in spite of herself, her hackle prickling with dread. 

“This is all you ! You cursed demon cat !” She screamed, throwing burnt sticks and stones from the wreckage at the lynx “THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT” 

She wailed, throwing harder and harder, but the feline evaded the projectiles easily. Inna knew for a fact the young human was a skilled huntress, the kills she brought home were always immaculate. If she’d really wanted to hit her she wouldn’t have missed “This is all your fault…” 

The anger and rages deflated, and she fell to her knees, sobbing. 

And it clicked. 

Nana was never coming back. 

Inna knew the pain that was radiating off of the child in front of her. She knew it intimately, she’d been living with it for weeks. 

It hit her, harder than she’d have thought. 

Nana was not coming back… 

It took her a minute to process enough to move again. She stood still, in the middle of this clearing, mere metres away from the dilapidated house, from the broken form in front of her. And she knew, she finally knew why she wasn’t given the kindness of dead, the solace of following her kits wherever they went. 

She stared at this little one, wrecked with sobs. 

Her job wasn’t done, she still had more to do. 

She looked at the grey sky above them for a moment, before stepping up to this human who hated her so much, and started roughly licking the debris off her hair, a loud, an unbridled purr bursting from her chest. 

Aida started, and stared into the two soulful golden orbs of that lynx she hated so much, and recognised the grief and understanding that permeated so openly from them.

Her fingers dug into the lynx’s fur, and she grieved for her nana, buried deep in Inna’s arms.

**Author's Note:**

> So this has been trotting in my head for a while. I have plans to perhaps extend it more, but I feel like it's a good stand alone.
> 
> It didn't quite go where I was expecting it to go, but I'm still rather pleased with the end result, please don't hesitate to share any thoughts, critics or anything, I'd love to hear what you think ! 
> 
> Tell me about any typos and such, this wasn't beta'ed at all hahaha


End file.
